Syrian forces killed at least five civilians during raids on villages around the besieged city of Hama on Tuesday, broadening a 10 day offensive on the city to nearby countryside, local activists said.

MISRATA, Libya – When 12-year-old Mohammed Bielshak left the house with his brother Ali on March 20, it was to give water from their well to thirsty rebels nearby who were fighting forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

“All we wanted to do was help the revolutionaries,” Mohammed said.

While they were out in the street, they were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Ali, 14, sustained shrapnel wounds in the leg and stomach and now walks with crutches. Mohammed lost his right arm just below the elbow and his left thumb and was blinded in his left eye. His right leg was fractured and has had reconstructive surgery on his left leg. (more…)

In the Syrian city of Ariha, the cherry trees are covered with deep red fruit. It is harvest time and the cherries are sweet, but no one comes to pick them. Two weeks ago, after the regime’s elite troops had transformed peaceful demonstrations in the nearby provincial capital Idlib into bloodbaths, two young men tried to save the cherry harvest. They loaded their small truck full of cherries and took off for the port city of Latakia in western Syria. They didn’t make it very far. A military patrol stopped the two men in front of a sugar refinery and shot them dead.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Soldiers deployed in force in Lebanon’s main northern city Tripoli Saturday after seven people were killed in clashes between Alawites and Sunnis over a rally against the Syrian government.

The number of Afghan civilians hospitalised for serious war wounds has doubled in 12 months in Kandahar, the focus of an ongoing US-led campaign against Taliban strongholds. In August and September, Mirwais regional hospital in the country’s second biggest city admitted almost 1,000 new patients with weapons injuries, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The total for the same period of 2009 was 500.

The Red Cross reported a “drastic increase” in the number of amputations from war injuries, reflecting the nature of the violence.